Moriarty's Early Review Of FEVER PITCH!

Nick Hornby seems to be living a charmed life, artistically speaking. He’s had four films made from his novels to date. In 1997, there was the first FEVER PITCH, a wonderful little gem about an obsessed fan of the Arsenal Football Club that gave Colin Firth one of his first big roles. The film that introduced most American viewers to Hornby was 2000’s HIGH FIDELITY, an excellent romantic comedy starring John Cusack and Jack Black in the role that jump-started his movie career. 2002’s ABOUT A BOY was enormously charming, giving Hugh Grant one of the most tailor-made roles he’s ever had. Each of these films felt personal, like they could only be the products of these particular filmmakers, and that’s definitely the case again with this new American take on FEVER PITCH, a film that gives Pete and Bobby Farrelly some of the best material they’ve ever had to work with.

Hornby’s particular specialty seems to be writing about these man-boys who live with one foot in adulthood and one foot firmly rooted in the interests and obsessions of childhood. I don’t think it’s any secret to anyone who reads this site regularly that I indulge my inner twelve-year-old on a regular basis. Maybe not quite as fully as Harry “Pwesents” Knowles, but that is why he is and always will be Head Geek. I think it’s essential to what we do that we hold on to the things that make us happy and inspire us. Right now, looking around my house, I am surrounded by toys and posters and DVDs and other relics that connect me to my childhood, things that I enjoy in a way that it hard to sum up verbally.

That can be a real shock to the system for a “real” adult when they walk into this. I know. I’ve seen it happen. You should see the look on a repair guy’s face when he’s here, or the way some of the women I’ve dated have reacted in the past. That look is what this new version of FEVER PITCH is all about, and it’s incredibly potent material. In fact, I’ll go one step further and say this:

This is the best film the Farrelly Brothers have made since THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, and it feels like a huge step forward for them as artists.

Working from a script by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, they’ve somehow made a film that feels intensely personal. The Farrellys are New England guys, and they grew up going to Fenway Park. They’re lifelong Red Sox fans themselves. The sense of specific geography in this film is excellent, and I’d imagine anyone who shares a passion for the Red Sox is going to have to own this movie. It’s an honest film, with most of the humor rooted in real human behavior, but there are plenty of small moments of their trademark brand of skewed slapstick. It’s a pretty remarkable balancing act, and the result is that rarest of creatures, a romantic comedy where the comedy is just as important as the romance.

If there is any genre of mainstream films that gets largely ignored here at AICN, it’s the romantic comedy, and with good reason. Most of what the studios pump out and slap with that label is insulting, man-hating dreck, feeble-minded would-be female empowerment garbage like THE WEDDING DATE or HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN TEN DAYS. Even the best of the genre, like the work of Richard Curtis, can be hard to swallow because of the fantasy ideal that it peddles. What makes FEVER PITCH (and the other films adapted from Hornby’s work) so unusual is the way it finds the romance in reality. This isn’t a film about a woman being swept off her feet by the perfect man, and it’s not full of deceptions and lies all designed to trick somebody into feeling something. This is about two recognizable people who fall into something real, and because of that, I think it should resonate with male and female viewers alike.

The film opens with a brief scene that shows seven year old Ben (Jason Spevack) moving to Boston with his mother. He has a hard time adjusting to the city until his uncle (Lenny Clark) takes him to Fenway Park for an afternoon. Ben falls in love with all of it... the game, the players, the fans, the stadium, the history... and in that moment, the die is cast. Ben gets bit by the bug, bigtime. Wisely, though, the film doesn’t belabor the point. It’s a sweet scene, simply played, and then things flash forward about 23 years.

The next 20 minutes or so simply sets up who our main characters are, and works to bring the adult Ben (Jimmy Fallon) together with Lindsay (Drew Barrymore). He’s a school teacher and she’s a systems analyst. He brings an advanced math class to meet her at work as an example of someone who uses applied math in their daily job. There’s no big giant meet-cute moment here. Instead, their attraction is etched in a series of small, believable moments, escalating gradually until they suddenly realize that they’re a couple. It’s moved well past casual.

And that’s when Ben tells Lindsay about his love of baseball. And specifically, about his love of the Red Sox. I’m no baseball fan, but you don’t need to be to appreciate the film. What’s important is the passion Ben feels, the fervor of his fandom, and the Farrellys get all the details right. Ben and his friends have certain rituals they enjoy every year, starting with spring training in Florida. When Lindsay and her father spot Ben on ESPN with his buddies, her dad calls him an “asshole,” and he’s not wrong. Ben comes across as a total lunatic. Ben inherited season tickets at Fenway from his uncle, and the dividing of those tickets among his buddies is another ritual, complete with ball-busting and humiliation for entertainment. These things are hard-wired into these guys, and Ben knows there’s a good chance he’s going to lose Lindsay when he reveals all of this to her. After all, he’s lost every other girlfriend over it. Lindsay’s determined to be different, though. She’s charmed by Ben’s boyish enthusiasm, by the way he seems connected to something. She sees all the passion he can muster, and she wants to be a part of it.

And that’s the central quandary of the film. How does someone who has spent their whole life partaking in a fanatical passion for something make room in their life for another person? Do you have to give something up? Does the other person have to share that passion? Can they? There’s no villain in this film, no artificial dilemma or THREE’S COMPANY-style misunderstanding that drives the couple apart conveniently at the act three bump. Instead, Ben and Lindsay have to wrestle with the real issues that I’ve faced and that I’ve seen my friends face as they try to build a life together. There are moments in here that I swear I’ve gone through, word for word, with my own wife. It’s surprising how real it all feels.

The supporting cast is used to flesh out Ben and Lindsay’s lives and to ground them. All of the people who sit in the seats around Ben at Fenway, his “summer family,” are perfectly cast, as are his friends. I particularly liked seeing the Farrellys use Willie Garson again. He’s always good in their films, and he has some of the most overt comedy moments here, good stuff that contributes some of the best tangential laughs in the film. Barrymore’s friends are probably the least interesting part of the film (although it was nice to see a still smokin’ Ione Skye show up in something), and I could live without the spin clas scene. It’s one of the few moments that feels like a routine romantic comedy. There are other scenes that start off familiar, like a GREAT GATSBY-themed birthday party, but the Farrellys use details like a drunken birthday toast to keep it honest and funny without letting sentiment ruin everything.

I actually saw TAXI yesterday morning, just before John Robie called to invite me to see FEVER PITCH, so I walked into the screening ready to hate Jimmy Fallon in this film. I don’t get him. I think he’s painfully unfunny on SNL, and TAXI was like being kicked in the balls by my DVD player for two hours. Somehow, though, the Farrellys managed to strip away all of Fallon’s bad habits here and they got a real performance out of him. Maybe it’s appropriate that he’s not the best-looking guy and he’s not suave and hilarious all the time. Same thing with Barrymore. She’s normal, approachable, and that’s a big part of her appeal. This isn’t wish-fulfillment fantasyland bullshit. I think most people will be able to see themselves onscreen while watching these two struggle to make things work.

It’s always risky when you’re the first person to review something. You don’t have the comfort of having the critical herd to tell you what to think. There are times when I go out on a limb for a film and find myself alone. I don’t think that’ll be the case this time, though. If Fox 2000 just releases the cut I saw last night, then I’m confident that the critical community and the mainstream audience both will warmly embrace the film. The fact that the Red Sox actually won the World Series while this was filming gave the Farrellys a Hollywood ending that they never would have tried for otherwise. It gives the film an extra added bit of magic.

Even without that, FEVER PITCH succeeds, but taken as a whole, this film is just plain out of the park.

I’ve got a vacation coming up next week to celebrate some phenomenal professional news I’ll be announcing at the end of March, but before I go, I’ll be back with my review of Neil Gaiman’s MIRRORMASK and one more DVD column. Until then...

http://movies.apple.com/movies/fox/fever_pitch/fever_pitch_m480.mov
On the other hand, I've seen great trailers and the movies themselves stunk, so maybe the opposite is true also--a bad trailer means a good film.

I was wondering - if you are familiar with the original you'll know it has quite a defining moment which revolves around teh Hilsborough (sp?) football disaster in the 80's where close to 100 fans were crushed to death in an overpacked stadium.
Is a similar event featured in the movie, or was there a similar horrible event that this film focusses on which relates to the American sport?
Rvd Barney Hood

What's that suppose to mean? I don't get it. They have decreased as artists since Dumb and Dumber which is their only real gem. From then on ... only downhill. Something about Mary was only so-so ... and don't let me get into their other shite. And WTF has happened to The Ringer? NOT EVEN A FRIGGIN RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCED. I have lost all faith in the bros.

...that this is a remake of an autobiographical work, that changes all the details? It's like if they'd set "Ali" in an English country village, changed the sport to bowls, but kept the title and called it a remake...

I'm really glad to hear that the Farrellys have another really good one coming out. Thing is, I don't really think they've made a bad movie yet. Everything they've done has been watchable and entertaining, but they seemed to be getting worse. I mean, 'Stuck On You' co-starred Cher playing herself. 'Dumb and Dumber' and 'Kingpin' are classics, but this new one sounds real good.

Hey, I'm all for a good comedy too - but there's more depth in a nursery rhyme. As a non-Red Sox fan I was more than a little thrilled when the Sox won the Series and Jimmy Fallon jumped on the field with Drew Barrymore to film the last elements of this film, amidst the celebration. I'm sure most Red Sox fans were suitably pissed.

Not at the box office necessarily, but if it's about a passionate, long suffering fan like the book. It's coming out at a bad time for him being a Sox fan. As an audience, you won't relate to his pain as much with a win in October.

I would argue that High Fidelity was a more personal work of Hornby, 31 Songs was fantastic and showcased his love of music, and the American setting did not harm it at all. As long as it is made well I don't see it as being much of an issue, sometimes change can be great (red in Shawshank, or crappy, Renee in Cold Mountain). As long as the film is made well, and this review has me to believe it has I am all for it. Plus we already got the Arsenal version.

You maybe need to have a brother to enjoy Stuck On You, but it's their best movie. The Farrellys find the human potential of the gross-out genre they helped resurrect.
Their work becomes more and more amazing just as people are losing interest in them. (Todd Phillips meanwhile gets acclaim for dishing out the same tired stuff.) They make some of the only comedies that you can hear question the genre's nature and motives.
In this sense, the Farrellys are at a place that approaches what Spielberg and Joseph Kahn are doing--making pop movies so smart that the intelligentsia's only defense is to dismiss them as trivial.

"There's Something About Mary" is the most overrated comedy of the last two decades. I cannot fathom why so many people consider it a classic. As for "Fever Pitch", romantic comedies aren't really my bag, so who knows? BTW, "Dumb and Dumber" is the Farrelly's best. Always remember that.

The guy that throws the little ball at the man with the stick is called the "pitcher." The little throwing action he does is called the "pitch." So the title still makes sense. Doesn't mean I'll be seeing this movie, though.

Just like The Perfect Storm was HUGE in Gloucester...OH WAIT. I live in Gloucester and everybody here fucking HATES that movie. They are collecting dust at the local blockbuster. I can't wait to see Jimmy effing Fallon doing a terrible Boston "accent"

...Drew Barrymore trying out for the cheerleader squad for the Patriots? 'Cause, you know, the championships fan bases sometimes butt heads in New England with the Dynasty vs. the End of the Curse vying for coverage. Cheerleader auditions begin on April 2 at Gillette Stadium, Drew. I wonder if the Farrelly Bros will be there to rush the field when the names of the women who made the cut are announced. This film better be all you say and more, Moriarty, because the on-field distraction of seeing Jimmy Fucking Fallon rush out there, in a moment of ultimate indescribable closure, was damn inexcusable. Know this.

Before I start: Fallon is talentless. Fallon is annoying. Fallon sucks. He has no fans. No one likes him. Now, even regardless of all that, his role as a Red Sox fan when he is nothing but an artificial in this might not be offensive (he is, after all, "acting") EXCEPT for the fact that his pseudo-fandom has become a marketing point for the film. He's going around wearing Sox caps and Sox shirts and Fox puts him at Sox games and etc. There is nothing to support his fandom other than the fact that he played a Masshole on SNL. The dude is from BROOKLYN. He is NOT a Red Sox fan, and the fact that he is whoring out the movie while pretending to be one is horrifying. No, I don't the movie REQUIRES an actor that is a fan of the Sox (Affleck would be no better in this role, nor would Damon - well, Damon would be, just talent wise), but Fallon should not be PRETENDING OFF SET that he is a fan of the team. He ISN'T. It's marketing, and it's gross. No true Red Sox fan appreciates that, and if you have your ear to the ground in Boston, you probably know that Fallon and Drew's disgustingly opportunistic kiss ON THE FIELD after the Sox won the World Series INFURIATES most of the Boston Red Sox community. It was just false. Eerybody already hates Fallon because he has no talent, is a Sandler knockoff (and is nowhere near likeable endure shifting sports allegiances as Sandler - a NY fan but a New Englander - does in his films) and is incredibly annoying. Masquerading as a Red Sox fan and capitalizing on the most anticipated and dreamed for moment in Boston Sports Histroy just makes people hate him more. The Farrelly Brothers should have known better than to cast him in this. So no, Moriarty, Red Sox fans DON'T have to root for this film, and even if it is as good as you say (which I highly, HIGHLY doubt), I expect a significant backlash against it in New England and the rest of (God help me for using this term, but it's convenient shorthand) Red Sox Nation. FUCK FALLON. GO SOX!!!!!!!!!

the romantic element i the english film ruined it and detracts from the source material so why go and remake it and make that the focus again. the 'relationship' is with the gunners and the ways their underwhelming seasons are a disappointment and force hornby to question his love for them. he looks at tragedies that did happen with all the hooliganism and rivalries too and thats all the essence of fever pitch, conveying the build up, experience, end and void of the season among diehards. theres a large part about being a child and the memorabilia and what have you that is to be collected including the swapping of your pro-sets and what not and subbuteo too, is their a baseball equivilant to subbuteo? i dont know why the filmfour one had romance in it but it did show subbuteo and wrist scarves and collecting and stuff. this one wont, and so under the name fever pitch will let alot of people down. they should have made 'how to be good' instead.

But I can't remember the basis of my arguement. He's been in a couple of films where, out of the blue, wolverhampton wanderers are mentioned by the character he plays, Once or twice in Fever Pitch and some other films.

As a Red Sox Fan, I'm interested and glad a movie was made that has them as part of the story. But the Fallon/Barrymore travesty that took place on the field after the final out in St. Louis in Game 4 is UNFOR-FUCKING-GIVABLE. And I HATE Jimmy Fallon, though I like Drew Barrymore, especially after Donnie Darko. This'll play in Boston for the same reason the NESN DVD is at the top of regional sales - we'll use any excuse to relive the world series. So yeah, I'll see it, but it'll take a seriously amazing comedy for me to ever overcome my disgust at their on-field antics and ever own it. As Bill Simmons said "YOU! Off the bandwagon! Right now! Seriously, pack your things and get off!"

I have no earthly idea how someone can seriously tell me "Mary" is not funny. Personally, I like most of their work, and I agree with others that "Stuck on You" is better than people think.
As for The Colonel, I say this: Only a fucking Red Sox fan could find something to be pissed off about during the greatest moment in their team's history. You guys just have to be depressed, pissed off or complaining about something. Who gives a fuck that they went on the field? Really. You won the fucking world series , let it go.
And i DO think the Sox winning hurts this movie. Wouldn't have been more resonant if Fallon's character has to deal with the inevitable disappointment at the end of the season, and Barrymore's character has to come to grips with the fact that each season could bring that disappointment? Works better (in theory) to me then the usual happy ending. Still, I hated the idea of this movie from watching the trailer, and moriarty's great review has me interested now. BTW Moriarty, THAT's the way you involve personal experiences in a review to bring home a point. THANK YOU. Now teach Harry how to do that.

I love the book and really like the original film. To me, changing it to baseball and the Red Sox just seems wrong. It might work. I want it too. But I still see too much of cocky Taxi Fallon and not enough of Almost Famous Fallon in the trailer. Here's hoping for a great, true to the book, future film adaptation of How To Be Good.

The original Fever Pitch is anything but a wonderful movie. It's 97 minutes of male wish fulfillment and suspended animation for an obsessed soccer fan that never grows, never learns anything, and manages to bag the woman who loves him for no good reason at all that's shown in the film. I have no doubt the story could be made into a resonant movie about a man failing to grow up and understand the world in terms other than the way it relates to football, but the Colin Firth film isn't it. It's a pretty dreadful, dull, and go-nowhere film.

He's just not much of an actor. He could never keep a straight face on SNL. Funny once or twice, annoying when it's practically every sketch. His song parodies are pretty entertaining, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't qualify anyone for leading man status; if it did, Weird Al would have more than UHF under his belt (though that movie is certainly entertaining). Other than that, my concerns are the same as everyone else: boring, unappealing trailer; unpleasant use of a historic baseball moment for a film; etc. Mori's review makes me more interested, but I still don't have any faith in this movie being more than sub-par.

that's because we american sports fans don't crush each other to death by the boatloads and engage in general hooliganism. no, we instead provoke the players into running into the stands and starting fistfights. we wait for concerts by the who to crush one another.

Get your facts straight. To suggest that the disaster arose from hooliganism is an outrageous insult to the victims, their families and to the fans of Liverpool F.C. It was a terrible, terrible day that will haunt many British football fans and members of the public for the rest of their lives. If you lived here in England and were around when it happened you wouldn't be talking about it so flippantly.

Don't shit with us, Mori. I just gandered the trailer -- bad slapstick abounds (Barrymore takes a fastball to the face, and rather lamely, I might add), there is wall-to-wall hick-pop music, and I swear I spotted the Farrelly's crippled mailman in a Sox hat. All staples of the Farrellys are clearly present except for the retards, which I assume are being saved for the enjoyment of paying audiences. The trailer does not indicate a "HUGE" step forward; in fact, the casting of Drew "Emotivoid" Barrymore and Jimmy "I'm a gimpy chucklehead" Fallon insists it is a side step at best. These guys fell off my radar after "Mary."

is used in the book to illustrate the extent of fandom. even though its happened everyone went back and goes still (although we're all seater in most places now.) hmmm. the film really is going to be a similar theme to fever pitch but i m not sure it should be called that because its not the same obsession. i get that pitch baseball bla bla but still. Arsenal mean more than that as is conveyed in the book. ah well

the thought of that hack getting premium seats to all those games, and allowed on-field during the celebration is too fresh in our minds. not to mention making fun of new england culture while attempting to cash in on it.

New England Culture? Premium Seats at fenway? That must mean seats that aren't behind support poles. Get over it. The worst francise in sports history wins one for once, and it's like the second coming. The movie didn't tarnish the win. The last 86 years did.

horrible horrible sport , I really have to restrain myself from saying things like ' you worthless sad cunts ' when anyone talks about football . Terrible - overweight drunk people chanting and shouting insults at players cos they could do so much better . Pulling t shirts over their heads and running around making out like an overpaid adulturer kicking a leather ball full of air into a goal is really going to make a fuck of a difference to anything . Fuck them . Fuck them all and their stupid fucking film . Dis i say that out loud?

Saw it on a plane coming home from California and wanted to the Jet to Nosedive into the Atlantic rather than watch one more scene with that creepy little bsain cut girlboyman. Horrible film. English people are not like that honest.

I don't know if I can actually watch this. I hate Jimmy Fallon - mostly because I don't think he's that funny, yet he's rich and I bet he gets all kinds of fantastic poon. And as for this movie, I like the concept, but I really have a hard time believing I'll like the leads. Drew Barrymore is mildly retarded and generally unfunny, yet for some unexpected reason I can totally see myself pounding back a martini and then having the best sex of my life with her. Weird, but I bet she's all kinds of fun in the bed.

And I pleasently see that two other talkbackers saw the same irony in this sentence we all saw in the evolving sensibility of another true artist. Ergo, be a JACKASS HACK OF A FILMMAKER and come to AICN, you'll be treated like ARTISTS! What's fucking next, THE SOUL WITHIN PAUL WS ANDERSON'S MORALE TALES? The captivating and everlasting enchantment of THE WAYAN BROTHERS? Get an EYE DOG you APES.

Since it's been changed from a gay sport like soccer to baseball, let me put this in baseball terms. It was made by the Farrelly Brothers, who are not funny -yet it claims to be a comedy... STRIKE ONE! It is a remake of a British film... STRIKE TWO! It has Ione Skye, yet she does NOT show her perfect tits in the film... STRIKE THREE! Drew Barrymore -YER OUTTA THERE!
If you want comedy, watch Ali G. If you want a movie withe the same plot and real comedic actors, watch the limey original. And if you really want to see a smokin' Ione Skye and her breasts in their full glory, check out most of her other films: Rachel Papers, Gas-Food-Lodging, the first 10 minutes of that piece of shit Four Rooms, and most recently, Mascara. She is one hot broad and her cans are a national treasure. Stay as far the fuck away from the new Fever Pitch as is humanly possible.